A Bump In the Night
by xElementFivex
Summary: Prompto was fairly sure his apartment was haunted.


Prompto was fairly certain his apartment was haunted.

Well, more to the point, he wasn't entirely convinced it was not not-haunted.

It had started innocently enough, maybe just a couple of weeks ago. It had been so gradual, in fact, he couldn't even pinpoint an exact starting date. Nevertheless, it had quickly become clear that his things were not staying where he had put them.

The first few times he had shrugged it off. Keys, wallet, school assignments, his phone; those were items that everyone misplaced at one time or another. Besides, Prompto was a not a particularly organized person even on his best days. The first time Noctis had seen his apartment, the prince had jokingly remarked that it looked like a tornado had been through it. Prompto had laughed weakly, swearing right then and there to himself that he would take to his grave the fact that that was the cleanest his apartment had been in weeks.

So he figured he could be forgiven for suspecting nothing other than simple human error. He could not, however, explain away what came next.

The one thing in Prompto's apartment that had any semblance of order to it was his camera case. It was neatly packed and kept as clean as the day he had bought it. While one wouldn't be surprised to find clothes spread over the floor or plates with half-eaten food under the couch, the camera case never moved from its revered spot on the shelf next to the front door. His camera was his most prized possession. It had cost him more than a month's rent and he had scrimped and saved for ages to get it. As a result, he treated it with more care than most people would treat a priceless antique. If the camera was not on his person, than it was in the soft, fabric-lined case or vice versa.

That was why he had promptly panicked one morning when he noticed it missing after stepping out of the shower. He had been searching through the ever-present pile of clothes on his couch for something clean to wear to school, when he happened to glance up towards the shelf. At first, he had seen the empty case on the shelf, shrugged, and gone back to his searching, adjusting the towel that had started to slip down past his narrow hips. It had taken a few seconds for the image to fully register in his mind, but when it had, Prompto had let out a shriek and bounded for the shelf, dropping the shirt he had been about to inspect.

It wasn't there. Prompto hadn't been able to make sense of that thought. His camera was _always_ either there or on him, and a quick pat down had confirmed what he already knew; that he hadn't carried the camera into the shower with him. He had just begun to feel the first tinges of full-blown panic when he had spotted it, sitting on the worn, but sturdy kitchen table. He had frowned as he approached, wracking his brain for how it could have possibly ended up there. He had been absolutely certain that he had not put it there, but… He lived alone, so there could be no other explanation. Maybe he was going crazy. It was a less than comforting thought.

He had returned the camera to its rightful place and stood, pondering, in his living room before realizing that in all the excitement his towel had dropped and the blinds on the windows in his ground-floor apartment were all standing open. The flush of embarrassment and the subsequent dash to hurry to school on time had put the incident out of his mind.

In fact, he had almost completely forgotten about the whole thing by the next weekend, which had found Noctis and himself lounging about on a Saturday when they really should have been doing homework, but were instead two hours into a day-long marathon of Justice Monsters V.

Prompto had excused himself to use the restroom. On his way back to the couch, he had knocked into something on the floor with his foot, sending it rolling across the cheap tile. That something had turned out to be his nearly full glass of soda, that had previously been sitting on the kitchen counter.

"What the hell, man?" he had demanded, as he dashed around, trying to clean the spill as quickly as possible before it spread to cover too much of the floor.

"Hmm?" Noctis hadn't even looked up from the game.

"Why'd you move my glass? Not funny, man."

Noctis had shrugged, still absorbed in the screen. "Didn't touch it dude. Swear."

Prompto had frowned, eyebrows knit together in confusion as he had dropped a now sodden dishtowel into the kitchen sink. He didn't say anything else about it that night, but he had noted the water ring still on the kitchen counter that proved he wasn't crazy. His glass _had_ been there.

That had been a week ago, and if Prompto had thought it was bad then, it was nothing compared to now. He couldn't keep track of anything. He had found his shampoo on top of the fridge, cutlery behind the couch cushions, and his camera had been so many places he had taken to carrying it everywhere but the shower. In one particularly annoying instance, he'd had to search for an hour before he found every last pair of his underwear stuffed into the oven.

He was sitting on his couch, absent mindedly flicking through channels, when the power went out. The soft hum of electronics stopped completely for a moment and all the lights went out. A few seconds later, the lamps flickered back on and TV resumed its playing. It was the third time that day.

 _Yep,_ thought Prompto. He apartment was definitely, one hundred percent, absolutely, for sure, haunted.

"Hey Noct?"

It was the next day and they were at Noctis's apartment, doing their best to ignore the paper they both had due tomorrow on the history of the Lucian royal line. Noctis stated, for obvious reasons, that he would be able to knock the paper out in less than an hour, and Prompto was just waiting to see what Noctis wrote before attempting his own. Besides, they both knew that once Ignis got there, he'd force them to start writing anyway, so why rush.

Noctis cocked an eyebrow in response, eyes and hands glued to his phone screen for a particularly intense round of King's Knight

"Theoretically, what do you do if you think your apartment is, like, haunted?"

That was enough to make Noctis lower his phone and give Prompto a quizzical look. "You think your apartment is haunted?"

"Yeah, I mean…" Prompto's hands flitted about his face, nervous at how crazy he might sound. "Stuff keeps moving and the lights keep going on and off and I found all my underwear in the oven and-" He broke off, feeling stupid.

Noctis pursed his lips as his eyebrows drew together. He rested one hand on his chin as he gazed at Prompto, who flushed slightly in embarrassment.

"I sound ridiculous, don't I?"

"A little." Noctis shrugged, and the concerned look vanished from his face as he picked up his phone again. "But if it's bothering you, ask Ignis. He always knows what to do."

"Hmmm." Ignis tapped his pointer fingers together as he pondered Prompto's question a few hours later.

As expected, he had returned to Noctis's apartment and kept a vigilant eye until both boys had written, typed and edited their assignments. After they had had dinner- one of Ignis's usual mouth-watering offerings- and Noctis was contentedly dozing on the couch, Prompto had worked up the nerve to ask the man his query.

After thinking for a long moment, Ignis pushed his glasses further up onto the bridge of his nose with a finger and looked at Prompto. "It's an interesting question. I suppose first one would have to decide whether one believes in ghosts or not." Ignis took Prompto's shrug as acquiescence and continued. "I suppose the next step would be to gather all the data you can about the situation. Sit down and write out an account of every incidence of suspected 'haunting' so you have it in writing to refer to later. You could compare the things you've been noticing with reported accounts from across the world using the internet. And I suppose, doing some research could hardly go amiss. In fact, I believe I've stumbled across a few very interesting looking volumes in the palace library on the paranormal. One in particular looked intriguing; a complete biographical volume on the wife of an important dignitary back a few hundred years ago, who was said to be quite in tune with the goings on of the world of the occult. Or perhaps-"

Ignis took note of the glazed look that had slid over Prompto's eyes and mercifully stopped talking.

"Well, it's not scaring you, is it?" he probed.

Prompto shrugged again. That seemed to be his answer for everything these days. "I mean, I guess, a little. I'm never sure what's going to happen when I'm home, so that's kind of unnerving."

"You should ask Gladio about it tomorrow. Perhaps he can give you some tips on how to scare it back."

Prompto did just that the next day, in between grunts of exertion as he barely fended off hits from Gladio's greatsword. The big man was attempting to teach him how to handle a sword, but it wasn't exactly going well. Prompto much preferred the feel of a gun in each hand to the grip of a sword hilt. But Gladio had argued that one day he would run out of ammunition and where would he be then? He was right, but Prompto had grumbled and complained all the same.

"Haunted?" Gladio let out a rough chuckle as he swung the monstrous sword in low in an attempt to take out Prompto's left knee. Prompto met the blow with his own, smaller practice sword, sweat pouring down his face in effort. Gladio never went easy on him.

"Yeah, haunted."

"Hmmm." The next strike was a thrust, aimed high at his chest. Prompto brought his sword up quickly to defend, the force of the blades meeting driving him back nearly a foot.

"I wouldn't know. Never really thought about something like that. Watch your footing," he admonished the blonde.

Prompto looked down, trying to rearrange his feet to the stance that Gladio had taught him, when he felt a stinging slap from the flat of Gladio's blade against his side. He tumbled onto the practice mats, gritting his teeth. That would leave quite the bruise.

"And never," Gladio pointed the tip of his greatsword at Prompto's face, to drive his point home, "take your eyes off your opponent. As for your ghost problem… I don't know. Maybe ask Noctis? He's into all that nerd stuff."

Prompto sighed and picked up his sword for another round. This had gotten him nowhere.

He had thought all the way through the rest of his training with Gladio, and through the walk to his favorite curry restaurant for dinner, and through the rest of his weary trek home. By the time he fumbled through his pockets for his keys and unlocked the front door, he knew what he wanted to do.

"Sure…" Noctis's voice sounded hesitant on the other end of the line. "I can come over tonight if you want me to. Not like we've got school tomorrow or anything. Is this about the ghost thing?"

"Thanks." It took effort not a breathe a sigh of relief into the phone. "Yeah, it is. I think I kind of want to confront this thing head on, ya know?"

"Like a séance? Should I bring candles?"

"Ahhh, no…" Prompto scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Nothing quite that intense. I just sort of don't want to be alone in my apartment right now."

"Gotcha. I'll be over in a bit."

Prompto thumbed back to the home screen on his phone and tucked it into his pocket before settling down on the couch to wait for Noctis. He thought about turning on the TV, but he wasn't in the mood for mindless chatter at the moment. He was on high alert, every creak of the plumbing and rumble of a car on the street outside made his ears perk. His fingers twitched when a neighbor's dog began barking loudly. He realized the light in his bedroom was on. He had most definitely not left it that way; he tried to keep his electricity bill as low as possible. He got up to investigate.

As he stood, there was a loud pop and the power failed. A rush of silence followed and Prompto froze. Just as quickly as it had shut off, the power flicked back on again. Prompto didn't even have time to voice his relief when the apartment was again plunged into darkness. There was no moon that night and besides, his blinds were closed anyway. He could barely see his hands in front of his face.

He groped blindly for the wall, hoping to follow it to the door so he could go outside and check the breakers. Suddenly there was a violent banging on his windows. It seemed to go on forever as Prompto turned from the door and rushed to investigate, tripping over gods-knew-what in the darkness.

Reaching the window, he pushed aside the blinds and stared feverishly into the night. There was nothing there. He continued to look around for a long moment, eyeing the road outside like it might give him answers, but none came. He sighed and turned away from the window, and to his relief, the lights in the apartment came slowly back up. He ran a hand through his hair, half feeling sheepish and half just hoping that Noctis would hurry up and get there already. His heartbeat had only just started to return to normal when his TV clicked on to a blank channel.

The noise was horrendous; the volume bar on the screen was maxed. He let out what was definitely an unmanly screech as he threw himself to the floor, searching desperately for the remote. He didn't find it but it didn't matter. A few seconds later the TV clicked off and silence returned. Prompto whimpered. _Now_ he was scared. Things were getting a whole lot weirder.

He rubbed his shoulders, shivering slightly. When had it gotten so cold in his apartment? Prompto reached for his phone. Even with traffic, Noctis still should have been there by now. He selected the prince's name off his call log and raised the phone to his ear, only to be greeted by an ear-splitting shriek on the other end, followed by a message. Out of service. He didn't even have time to process this newest development when everything seemed to go wrong all at once.

It was as if the ghost was playing all his greatest hits right in a row. The lights flickered endlessly while TV blared, still at max volume, but not flicking through channels as if a ghostly finger were pressing the buttons. Prompto screamed as the banging returned at the windows. A wave of cold rolled over him and a violent banging on the window by the door joined the noise the apartment. Suddenly the front door slammed open, revealing the empty, dark hallway beyond.

Enough was enough. Prompto hadn't survived this long by himself by not being able to tell when to get the hell out of dodge. Without hesitation he launched himself out the front door, running wildly and screaming like a fool the entire way down the street.

The sounds of Prompto's footsteps and rapid-fire cursing faded quickly, and a few seconds later Noctis popped his head out from behind the door to Prompto's apartment, which he had yanked open only moments before. He swiftly closed and locked the door with the key he had been using to let himself in and move things around for weeks.

"That was so great. Soooo worth the month of work."

"Well, he did seem rather frightened." A curt voice answered as Ignis closed the door to the electrical breakers and stepped into the darkened hallway to join the first.

"I'm just impressed you stuck with it this long." A third voice entered the conversation as Gladio came around the corner, where he had been crouched underneath Prompto's living room windows.

"Yes, yes, well now that we've acquiesced to your ridiculous games, will you please go and finish those council reports for your father?" Ignis asked, sounding half annoyed and half amused.

Noctis grinned and clapped the other two men on the back as they all began to work to the car. "I'll think about it, Ignis. Thanks for the help guys. Couldn't have done it without you."


End file.
